In the electronics field a variety of techniques have been employed to terminate electrical cables. Electrical cables may have one or more electrical conductors covered or separated by electrical insulation. Typically an electrical connector (cable termination) is coupled to the end of the cable to form a cable termination assembly which facilitates connecting conductors of the cable to other cables, terminal boards, modular equipment used in computers, etc. Important features of such cable termination assemblies are facility of manufacture and/or use, mechanical strength, security and integrity of electrical connections made therein and thereby, and cost efficiency.
Multi-conductor electrical cables have enjoyed widespread use in the electronics industry. One such multi-conductor cable includes plural wires, each including a conductor covered by its own insulation, physically bundled together by a fastener, external sheath or the like. Other multiconductor cables commonly referred to as flat or ribbon cables include plural electrical conductors electrically isolated and held in relative parallel coplanar relation by electrical insulation forming an integral structure. The insulation for such ribbon cable may be of various electrically non-conductive materials such as plastic or plastic-like materials, polytetrafluoroethylene, fiberglass, etc. Typical flat ribbon cables may have multiple conductors therein numbering more than eighty.
In some uses of ribbon cable, such as for high speed signal transmission purposes, it may be desirable electrically to isolate adjacent signal carrying conductors (hereinafter signal conductors, although some also may be connected to a reference potential, e.g., ground potential), by providing, for example, one or more conductors therebetween that are maintained at a reference potential, such as ground potential. The isolating conductors are commonly referred to as ground conductors, it however being appreciated that the reference potential may be other than ground potential, and may be achieved, for example, by connecting alternate conductors of the cable to a ground reference potential.
Examples of prior electrical connectors for electrical cables having signal conductors and ground (isolation) conductors are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,094,564 and 4,310,208. Although the connectors of these patents have desirable attributes, they are coupled to the cable at its end and still require considerable preparation of the cable conductors to position the same for connection in the bifurcated ends of respective contacts that are supported in a directly molded contact carrier body. Such preparation of the conductors is time consuming and a relatively delicate procedure to assure that the conductors are properly formed, are not short circuited, and properly engaged with respective contacts.